Terminologijos seminaras „Lietuvių terminologijos raidos bruožai ir dabartinė būklė“

Terminology Seminar Features of the Development of Lithuanian Terminology and Its Current State AUŠRA RIMKUTĖ Institute of the Lithuanian Language On 19 April 2006, a terminology seminar entitled Features of the Development of Lithuanian Terminology and Its Current State was held at the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences’ Palace of Scientists. The seminar was organized by the Palace of Scientists of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences and the Terminology Centre of the Institute of the Lithuanian Language. The event was intended for everyone interested in and concerned about Lithuanian terminology. It was opened by Aldona Daučiūnienė, director of the Palace of Scientists of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences, who also delivered the welcoming remarks. Jonas Klimavičius, senior researcher at the Terminology Centre of the Institute of the Lithuanian Language, delivered a paper entitled Lithuanian Terminology: A Century’s Course. According to him, Lithuanian terminology begins with the first Lithuanian book, Martynas Mažvydas’s catechism (1547). For almost three centuries, Lithuanian terminology was ecclesiastical or theological and philological. More systematic creation of scientific terminology began in the nineteenth century. Lithuanian terminography began in 1821 with the terminology dictionary by Jurgis Ambraziejus Pabrėža, Dictionarium Botanicum Latino Samogiticum. The old dictionaries were handwritten. The first printed terminology dictionary appeared only in 1907. According to the linguist, organized terminography began in Voronezh before the First World War, where Pranas Mašiotas, Marcelinas Šikšnys, Zigmas Žemaitis, and Konstantinas Šakenis gathered around the linguist Jonas Jablonskis and jointly created, discussed, and approved mathematical, chemical, and physical terms. In 1921, the Terminology Commission was established. In the fourth decade of the twentieth century, the Commission consolidated the procedure for organized term creation, discussion, and approval initiated by Jablonskis. J. Klimavičius calls 1938–1954 a major gap in terminography, since only one dictionary was published: A. Novodvorskis’s Concise Russian-Lithuanian Technical Dictionary (1949). The most productive period for publishing terminology dictionaries began in 1990. In all, more than 250 terminology dictionaries and glossaries covering various fields were published over fifteen years (1990–2005). The speaker regretted that the terminology dictionaries in polytechnics, 232 Aušra Rimkutė | Terminologijos seminaras Lietuvių terminologijos... medicine, geography, geology, music, and other fields had not been updated for a long time. In closing, he emphasized that terminography is not considered scholarly work, and its planning, organization, and coordination have still not been institutionalized. The subject of Albina Auksoriūtė’s paper, head of the Terminology Centre of the Institute of the Lithuanian Language, was The Tasks and Prospects of the Terminology Centre. The fact that terminology work at the Institute of the Lithuanian Language has been carried out since the very beginning of the Institute’s establishment in 1941 has already been mentioned and written about by the speaker on several occasions (see Auksoriūtė 2005: 11–20). In 2003, the Terminology Department at the Institute was replaced by the Terminology Centre, whose main activities are to investigate theoretical problems in contemporary Lithuanian terminology and the history of Lithuanian terminology; to establish principles for Lithuanian terminology, terminography, and the standardization and management of terms; to manage terms in various fields and, where necessary, coin new ones, assess and standardize them; to advise compilers of terminology dictionaries; and to train terminology specialists. Since 1994, the Terminology Centre has published the scholarly journal Terminology annually and has organized scholarly terminology conferences and seminars for specialists. The Centre’s staff maintain ties with international terminology organizations, including INFOTERM and EAFT. They participate in the European Commission’s EUROTERMBANK project. Concluding her paper, A. Auksoriūtė emphasized that terminology work at the Institute of the Lithuanian Language has been carried out for more than six decades and has expanded considerably in scope. In the past, the Institute’s terminologists did more practical terminology work, whereas in recent years the Institute has increasingly developed scholarly and theoretical work in terminology, although the Terminology Centre’s staff still have a considerable practical workload. International cooperation is expanding: ties are maintained not only with the closest neighbors, Latvian and Estonian scholars, but also with terminologists from the Russian school and representatives of terminology schools in Western countries. One of the main problems is the shortage of qualified terminologists. The seminar also featured the twelfth issue of the journal Terminology. The journal consists of four sections: Terminology and the Present; The History of Terminology; Notes, Discussions, Proposals, Miscellanea; Reviews, Surveys, Information, Bibliography. Editor Jonas Klimavičius was pleased by the abundance of articles, although many had been written by young researchers. Terminology contains articles on terminology in construction (R. Stunžinas), military affairs (V. Drotvinas), religion (A. Rimkutė), medicine (P. Zemlevičiūtė), literary studies (A. Mitkevičienė), and law (A. Umbrasas). According to the editor, the present and the past, structure Terminologija | 2006 | 13 233 and development, native and borrowed terminology, variation and norms—the paths by which sources and data are explored, and the perspectives from which they are assessed. In the Notes, Discussions, and Proposals section, the editor’s continuing article Term from Term II is published. The twelfth issue of Terminologija contains abundant information testifying to the breadth of terminological activity. Reviews by J. Klimavičius, S. Labanauskienė, and A. Rimkutė are also published. In addition, an annotated bibliography of terminology (20 entries) is presented. Linguist Stasys Keinys presented the collection of articles Terminology Problems of the Baltic Peoples and the European Union, based on papers delivered at the international terminology seminar Terminology Problems and Tasks of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania in the European Union, organized by the Terminology Centre of the Institute of the Lithuanian Language on 5–6 October 2004. He briefly introduced the articles. The article by Christian Galinski, Director General of the International Information Centre for Terminology (INFOTERM), analyzes the activities of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and semantic harmonization; the article by Sergei Shelov, head of the Committee on Scientific Terminology in Fundamental Sciences at the Institute for Problems of Information Transmission of the Russian Academy of Sciences, discusses issues in terminology theory—what a term is, how it is defined, what types of term definitions there are, and so on. Articles by linguists and specialists in other fields from Estonia (H. Tamm), Latvia (D. Reizniece, J. Sylis, I. Ilzinia, J. Borzovs), Lithuania (A. Auksoriūtė, N. Dudlauskienė, St. Keinys, S. Meškauskienė), Hungary (J. Pustajus), and Russia (V. Leičikas, S. Šelovas) discuss the state and problems of terminology in those languages. It is hoped that this collection of articles will be useful both to those engaged in practical terminology work and to everyone interested in terminology. A new terminology publication was also presented at the terminology seminar—the selected articles of linguist Jonas Klimavičius, Works on Lexicology and Terminology: Norm and History. The collection was presented by the author himself, who quoted his words from the Preface, saying that “Kazimieras Kuzavinis happily nudged me toward linguistics” (Klimavičius 2005: 7). The book consists of two parts and, at the end, a unified list of abbreviations for the bibliography and sources, as well as an index of words. According to the author, all the articles have been supplemented and edited to some extent. “It strives to consistently combine two aspects of research—the historical and the normative. Great attention is paid to the systematicity of vocabulary and terminology. This also unites the diversity of topics. Norms dictated by chance, the swings of fashion, or examples from other languages, rather than fostered by natural internal development 234 Aušra Rimkutė | Terminologijos seminaras Lietuvių terminologijos... rodosi pragaištingiausias dalykas“ (Klimavičius 2005: 8). Pirmoje straipsnių rinktinės dalyje spausdinami leksikologijos straipsniai. Pirmiausia bandoma paaiškinti: Kas yra bendrinės kalbos leksika? Išsamiai ir plačiai aptariama žodžių geradėjas, piktadėjas, niekadėjas; auka, apiera, atnaša; lemti, sąlygoti, apspręsti; skaičius, skaitliukas, skaitlingas, priskaičiuoti; savintis ir įsisavinti; domėtis ir įdomautis; interesas; amtm onas ir amstrotas; Kerzos batai kilmė ir vartosena. Plačiai aptariami žodžiai su be- priešdėliu. Apie skolinius ir vertinius rašoma straipsnyje Semantiniai vertiniai ir motyvacijos pamokos. Antra dalis skirta terminologijai. Iš straipsnio Motyvacijos pamokos galima pasimokyti terminijos lietuviškumo. Mokslinę terminiją J. Klimavičius pirmiausia regi išaugusią iš liaudies terminijos ir vis augančią (Nuo liaudies terminijos prie mokslinės). Atskiruose straipsniuose aiškinama tekstilės, metalų, aviacijos, artilerijos, ornitologijos, geologijos, fizikos, technikos, sporto ir kitų sričių terminų kilmė, paplitimas, vartosena, norma. Knyga baigiama gana plačia lietuvių terminografijos apžvalga – Lietuvių terminografija: praeities bruožai, dabarties sunkumai ir uždaviniai. At the terminology seminar Features of the Development and Current State of Lithuanian Terminology, participants were introduced to national terminology and terminography, their development and current state; it was shown that terminology work in Lithuania is being carried out productively, and the latest publications by terminologists were also presented. LITERATŪRA Auksoriūtė A. 2005: Terminologijos darbas Lietuvos kalbos institute. – Pabaltijo tautų terminologijos problemos ir Europos Sąjunga, Vilnius. 11–20. Klimavičius J. 2005: Leksikologijos ir terminologijos darbai: norma ir istorija. Vilnius. Gauta 2006-12-01 Aušra Rimkutė Lietuvių kalbos institutas P. Vileišio g. 5, LT-10308 Vilnius E. paštas [email protected] Terminologija | 2006 | 13 235